Data center site selection preferred location (Millions of sq. ft. built out in Utah, mostly large companies and government agencies)

Abundant local tech talent and business friendly local and state governments

Ideal Utah climate helps cool the data center efficiently

Major Delta hub with daily direct flights from all over the US

Why Utah for Colocation?

Utah is where most of the top data archive companies host their data, edging out Las Vegas, Denver and Phoenix as the preferred low cost, disaster safe colocation site selection. Even the NSA selected Utah as the site for its massive 1,000,000 sq. ft. Utah Data Center.

The low cost of power enables world-class data centers in Utah to offer high value colocation at a price significantly less than popular metro areas, and the disaster safe geography makes Utah ideal to limit service disruption.

Additionally, Utah is on the crossroads of internet connectivity from Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles to the East Coast. For those who know, Utah is a very ideal place for data center colocation.

Fibernet’s Salt Lake City Metro Data Center Facility

Fibernet built its own 40,000 sq. ft. data center facility in 2002 just south of Salt Lake City. The Orem data center is ideal for colocation in Utah because of it’s great selection of on-net network carriers, ease of accessibility, close proximity to a hot tech startup market and the low power cost savings and low disaster risk profile advantages that come with having a data center in utah.

Availability / Accessibility / Efficiency

Critical to any colocation facility is the accessibility to the data center and the high availability of built in power and network redundancies. Additionally, geographic location plays a large role in the cooling efficiency of the facility.

Utah Data Centers are Highly Accessible

Utah is a major Delta airline hub and with the SLC airport rated as #1 for on-time arrivals you can rest assured that you can easily get to your data infrastructure on a moments notice. Fibernet’s Orem data center is located just off a main freeway exit and is a quick drive from the SLC airport.

Network Redundancy

Uptime is critical for a data center provider, and there is no one better at it than Fibernet. Rest assured that your upstream network is monitored by experts who have gained credentials and years of experience solving and preventing network disruption and ensuring high availability. Fibernet’s network is redundant logically as well as physically redundant with diverse fiber paths into the building.

Ideal Ambient Air Temperature

For 9 months out of the year Utah’s climate fits the ASHRAE window for ideal data center floor temperature and humidity best suited for data infrastructure. This means that data centers like Fibernet can cool their colocation facility more efficiently than data center facilities located elsewhere.

Power Grid

Utah’s power costs are some of the lowest in the nation, and with Rocky Mountain Power as the main power provider, rest assured that the power supply is ample and generated from diverse methods including coal, solar and wind energy development.

Disaster Risk Profile

Void of major natural disasters, Utah is ideally located in a low disaster risk geographic region. Historically Utah doesn’t register any hurricanes or ice storms, and there is very little risk of flooding, tornadoes and earthquakes. It’s hard to imagine a more disaster safe region than Utah.

Presidential Disaster Risk Map

Unlike most other areas of the US, Utah data centers don’t have the threat of power outages due to ice storms, flooding and other severe weather.

FEMA Natural Disaster Declarations by State and per Area

Compared to other US states, Utah has one of the fewest disaster incidents for its size. The historical disaster per 10 square miles figure for Utah is incredibly low. If you were to just consider the total number of disaster declarations by state and base your disaster-safe data center site selection criteria solely on that, then you’d put Rhode Island and Delaware on the top of the the list. Factoring in the area of the state normalizes the data and accounts for larger area states having more disasters than smaller ones.

Disaster Declarations by State and per Area

State

Number of Incidents

Sq. Miles

Incidents per 10 sq. Miles

Alaska

60

663,267.26

0.009046127

Wyoming

28

97,813.56

0.028625888

Michigan

36

96,716.11

0.037222341

Utah

33

84,898.83

0.038869794

Montana

68

147,042.40

0.046245165

Idaho

41

83,570.08

0.049060621

New Mexico

81

121,589.48

0.066617605

Wisconsin

45

65,497.82

0.068704577

Nevada

76

110,560.71

0.068740514

Arizona

79

113,998.30

0.069299279

Kansas

59

82,276.84

0.071709123

Minnesota

66

86,938.87

0.07591541

Nebraska

60

77,353.73

0.077565749

South Carolina

25

32,020.20

0.078075715

North Dakota

56

70,699.79

0.079208156

Colorado

85

104,093.57

0.081657301

South Dakota

68

77,116.49

0.088178287

Georgia

57

59,424.77

0.095919597

Missouri

68

69,704.31

0.097554943

Oregon

96

98,380.64

0.097580174

North Carolina

55

53,818.51

0.102195323

Illinois

60

57,914.38

0.103601213

Iowa

60

56,271.55

0.106625817

Ohio

54

44,824.90

0.120468757

Texas

341

268,580.82

0.126963645

Pennsylvania

59

46,055.24

0.12810703

Arkansas

69

53,178.62

0.129751393

Indiana

48

36,417.73

0.131803932

Mississippi

68

48,430.19

0.140408287

Virginia

61

42,774.20

0.14260933

Louisiana

74

51,839.70

0.14274774

California

242

163,695.57

0.1478354

Tennessee

63

42,143.27

0.149490061

Alabama

79

52,419.02

0.150708655

Maine

57

35,384.65

0.161086799

New York

94

54,556.00

0.172300022

Kentucky

71

40,409.02

0.175703345

Washington

144

71,299.64

0.201964554

Florida

136

65,754.59

0.206829668

Maryland

31

12,406.68

0.249865395

Oklahoma

178

69,898.19

0.254656093

West Virginia

66

24,229.76

0.272392298

Hawaii

47

10,930.98

0.429970597

Vermont

43

9,614.26

0.447252311

Massachusetts

48

10,554.57

0.454779304

New Hampshire

46

9,349.94

0.491981767

Connecticut

31

5,543.33

0.559230643

New Jersey

51

8,721.30

0.584775206

Delaware

21

2,489.27

0.843620821

Rhode Island

22

1,545.05

1.423902139

Threat of Earthquake to Data Center Colocation in Utah

Being located in the Rocky Mountains the principle natural disaster threat is that of earthquakes. But the frequency is nothing compared to California and the severity of destruction is low. For instance, the major fault lines in Utah spread apart as opposed to rubbing together (like the San Andreas fault in California) or against each other (which formed the Himalaya Mountains). So even when there is an earthquake, the damage threat is low.

Carrier Network Connectivity

Utah has a legacy of exceptional Internet connectivity dating back to 1969 when three computers in California were connected to a computer in Utah and the Internet predecessor ARPANET was born. Fast forward to today and Utah is on the crossroads of major East-West Internet connectivity. All of the major fiber providers and network carriers go through Utah, where their paths follow the freeways which split three directions at Salt Lake City and go toward Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles. As one of Utah’s oldest data center providers, Fibernet is highly connected to major network carrier providers and highly available with diverse paths; offering all of the network and bandwidth you could ever need.

Utah Fiber Provider Paths

Utah is on the crossroads of major fiber connectivity between the East and West Coast in the US. From Utah the westbound fiber networks split and head to Seattle and Portland, Sacramento and San Francisco, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Diego.

Image courtesy of University of Wisconsin and ACM SIGCOMM

Fibernet Connectivity

Fibernet has a data center facility in Utah which is one of the most connected facilities in the state and includes on-net carrier network providers such as: XO, CenturyLink, Integra, Hurricane Electric, Utopia, Verizon and Comcast.

Why Do Business in Utah?

Utah has a friendly business environment with a strong tech startup sector and available supply of expert tech talent.

Data Center Site Selection Preferred Location

Join the growing number of companies choosing to host their data infrastructure in Utah. Among them are many of the archival and data backup providers, large tech companies, startups and companies of all sizes just looking to reduce hosting costs and lower their disaster risk profile. The most prominent data center facility is the 1+ million sq. ft. government Utah data center facility, which is a giant data archive facility that leverages Utah’s low power costs and abundant local tech talent.

Great Business environment

Utah is among the top states in the nation to do business. The state unemployment is among the lowest in the nation, power costs are low and taxes are low. Available tech talent is fueled by two major universities just 40 miles apart spanning the width of the Salt Lake City metro area. Companies can rest assured that their business will thrive if located in Utah.

Abundant Local Tech Talent

Colocation is easy in Utah because of all of the local tech talent available to employ whether hired directly or through a managed service provider. Fibernet has their own technical staff available to assist with expert IT services and solutions should you need assistance with managing your data infrastructure.